


Pockets Full of Stone

by Aoyagi



Series: Elemental [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: A little bit slice-of-life, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, M/M, No beta we die like Sephiroth, Zack Fair Lives, Zack Fair's inner voice has a potty mouth, canon adjacent, low slow burn romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24075442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoyagi/pseuds/Aoyagi
Summary: Picking up where we left off, sort of.feat. Zack having too many emotions, Cloud having too many thoughts, and Tifa having it up to here with these dorks.
Relationships: Zack Fair & Avalanche, Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Series: Elemental [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1736875
Comments: 37
Kudos: 323





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, yeah. Here we go!
> 
> 1\. Once again, I'm writing on my phone, so chapters will be short but should update every few days.
> 
> 2\. Also, my plot roadmap is about as accurate as a 12th century map, so please expect tags to be adjusted as I go along.
> 
> ==  
> For those interested in yelling about FF7 elsewhere, I'm @ReigningThorn on twitter

Zack honestly did not expect to make it out of that fight alive. Wave after wave of troopers who he knew were just following orders - after months of being a fugitive and years of being a lab rat, he was tired to the bone even before the first volley.

So when he felt the bullet sear a line across his scalp, and the last thing he saw was Cloud crawling towards him before everything went dark, well. It didn't seem a stretch assume that this was it. He even got to spend some time in a floaty in-between place, where he's sure Angeal came to visit him and they had some very important conversations, but the content of those conversations sadly does not follow him out of the Lifestream.

Consciousness is not an on-off switch. There are impressions that soak through, of distant pain, a lumpy narrow bed. The smell of Cloud's hair in his nose. Voices rising and falling above him, something generally gross tasting being fed into his mouth. He has no sense of time, but one day he surfaces and he's being lowered into a bed, and it's not _his_ bed. The lumps are all different, it's too wide. It doesn't smell like Cloud. Something is wrong.

For the first time, Zack actually tries to wake up. It's possible that he's fading in and out still; it could be two minutes or two days before he manages to get his eyes open.

It's dark, is his first thought. Thanks to his enhancements, he can see well enough, but it's also apparent that the only bit of dim light comes through a window that is either painted over or really incredibly dirty. He turns his head, takes in the room. He's on a bed in a corner. On the opposite wall is a row of doors, and an alcove with a small sink and mirror. The exit door is on the far wall, adjacent to the sink alcove. The larger part of the far wall is taken up by the wide rectangle of painted/dirty window, beneath which is a desk with drawers and a chair. And that's it, that's the entire room.

Is this a cell? It's smaller that the single he had as 3rd Class, bare and utilitarian. It's difficult to tell if the dim light coming through the window is natural or artificial.

Sitting up is a chore; every muscle in his body aches with fatigue, but it feels less like the exhaustion of too-much-running-too-little-sleep-and-food from before the battle, more like getting over a long illness where you haven't been out of bed in days. 

Zack pulls in a slow, deep breath through his nose - dust, smog, the faintest hint of Cloud. He looks back at the bed and there's just a sheet and a pile of clothes that were acting as a pillow. The Cloud-scent is coming from the clothes, but that's the only thing here that smells familiar.

Focusing, he can hear something through the wall by the bed; moaning, nonsense babble. Another prisoner? Did ShinRa capture him and Cloud after he was knocked out? If Zack is in a cell, where did they take Cloud? Back to the labs? 

If Zack has healed enough to wake up sore from oversleeping , how long have they had Cloud?

Zack's spiraling thoughts are temporarily stopped by the sound of footsteps on stairs, two sets, one lighter than the other. The adrenaline is a rush to his head, fingers tingling, as he tracks the footsteps up to the landing, until they stop outside his door.

Silently, Zack abandons the bed, moves to the alcove behind the door. The larger person is in the lead. There's a single _rap_ , then the door opens - no key, it wasn't locked - and a hand reaches toward the switch on the wall. He strikes.

The woman he has pinned to the wall with an arm lock claims to be Tifa, but No. _No nonono_ Tifa is a teenager in a hat and vest, not this adult. Except, of course, she was there in the reactor with Sephiroth. Her father - the mayor? - was bleeding, she was bleeding, but that was all five years ago. Then she mentions Cloud and... 

"Cloud?" His grip goes slack, Tifa turns to face him, but doesn't move away. Stupid. "Cloud is awake?" Can that be true? The last thing he saw was Cloud crawling towards him before everything went dark. That hadn't been a hallucination?

Zack's thoughts are again interrupted by a sound from outside, this one more of an all-encompassing earthquake. He and Tifa move to the door just in time to see, through the gloom of under-plate Midgar, a reactor explode.

* * *

"What. What is going on?" He says, turning to Tifa. "Where's Cloud?"

He registers the second person, a little girl, cowering behind Tifa's legs. Could she be Tifa's daughter? She has the same dark hair and pale skin, and Zack's a bad judge of kids' ages but she could be about four years old, maybe. Shit, did he just attack this kid's mom right in front of her? Zack feels his ears start to burn with shame.

Tifa is still looking in the direction of the explosion, but at his question, refocuses on their current situation. "Hopefully not anywhere near that," not helpful, "but he's out on a job." Not much help either. She wipes her hands down her face. "Long story short, you and Cloud showed up about two weeks ago. We're in the Sector 7 slums. You've been... unconscious. I've been helping him take care of you. Cloud's working tonight, so Marlene and I," she gestures to the little girl, "came to give you dinner." There's a container of spilled something-unidentifiable on the floor if the open-air corridor. Suddenly the adrenaline isn't holding him up anymore, and he needs to sit down. So he does, on the floor.

"Uh. Sorry about that. Marlene, right? I'm sorry I scared you and Tifa like that," the little girl just shrinks even further back. 

"Marlene is following her Dad's advice and not talking to strangers. I told her you would be asleep so she wouldn't have to talk to you." Ah, way to go, Zack, reinforcing Stranger Danger. "Look, I'm sure you have more questions, and since that was your food that got spilled, I'm sure you're hungry." Come to think of it, he is starving, but he's also gotten used to ignoring stuff like that. "Why don't you come back to the bar with us, and I'll make up something else for you. Now that you're awake, you can even have something that needs teeth." Tifa's offered hand is as much an offer of forgiveness as to help him get up. Zack is happy to take both.


	2. Chapter 2

Zack and Tifa do spend the next few hours at the bar, talk split between idle chatter and friendly interrogations. Tifa is frustratingly vague on what kind of work Cloud is doing tonight. Zack, in return, doesn't get too specific about what he and Cloud have been up to for the last several years. 

He does gather that Tifa is under the impression that Cloud is a SOLDIER 1st Class, same as Zack. It's understandable; Zack had dressed Cloud in the same uniform, and after the labs, Cloud's bound to have some enhancements, too. It sounds like Cloud just...never corrected her. He flashes back to Nibelheim, where Cloud had refused to show his face, ashamed of his failure to be accepted into the SOLDIER program. Fate's a fucking bitch.

So Zack sits at the bar and eats the best meal he's ever tasted, reminiscing about his adventures the last time he was in Midgar - "Hey I think I might have helped name this place." Marlene still won't talk to him, she sits on the other side of Tifa. Zack tries, "I'm sorry, again, for scaring you and your mom." Then has to dig his foot out of his mouth while Tifa laughs at him and explains. Marlene's dad is Barret, who is off on the same mystery job as Cloud, Tifa is just the babysitter for tonight.

After dinner, they relocate to the front steps. The last train gets into the Station just before 12:30, so they don't have much longer left to wait. Marlene sags sleepily against Tifa's side while Zack sits opposite, a little behind and above them. He sighs and goes to run a hand through his hair, only to meet...no hair? Curious fingers explore the little strip of stubble, following the path of a knotted yarn of scar tissue running from his hairline to the crown of his head. He's still got long hair on either side, but it doesn't take a mirror to figure out that he won't be able to hide the scar until the cropped bit grows back.

He must make some sort of noise, because Tifa turns to face him, expression pulling in sympathy when she sees what he's found. "Gonna have to get real creative with my next hairstyle." He shrugs.

Tifa looks like she's about to say something he's sure will be very sweet and tactful, but thankfully they're interrupted by a small crowd of people passing by on the street. They're all coming from the direction of the train station, so it seems like Barret and Cloud should be here soon.

And then he sees Cloud break through the crowd, and Zack feels like he's going to burst out of his skin, in a good way. Cloud is in a modified set of SOLDIER armor, the Buster Sword's haft rising over his back, shoulders straight, eyes bright and alert. He looks incredible. Zack shouts his name, bounding down the stairs into a surprisingly strong pair of arms. On a lark, he goes for a leg hug, just expecting Cloud to sit down or drop Zack, but it actually works! Cloud holds him up with little effort, though his cheeks are flaming red. 

He sets Zack back down on the stairs, kneeling on a lower riser. Zacks legs still wrapped around his waist. We're going to be mercenaries, he says. Zack remembers saying that to a catatonic Cloud, in the back of a truck on the way to Midgar. Cloud heard him? How much does he remember? Zack buries his head on Cloud's shoulder, tries not to cry, but he's not sure if he succeeds.

When they pull apart, they're alone in front of Tifa's bar. There's lights on and movement inside, presumably Tifa and Barret at least. Zack doesn't want to go in. He must be a bit too obvious, because Cloud clears his throat and offers, "It's been a long day. Do you mind if we just go home? The rest of this can wait until the morning."

"Yeah," Zack agrees. Home is a foreign concept at this point, but wherever Cloud is, he'll be fine.

* * *

The second time Zack wakes in that tiny apartment, all he can smell is Cloud. They're curled up together, Cloud's head on Zack's shoulder, the same way they've been sleeping since they escaped the labs. He's happy to just lay there and drift, enjoying the heat of Cloud's body soaking through their clothes; knowing that, for the first time in forever, there's no urgency to go anywhere and no one to run from.

Like his own personal sunrise, he feels a shift in his companion's breathing, little twitches in his hands, until finally Cloud's nose scrunches, he rolls forward and rubs his face in Zack's shirt. Then his eyes crack open and he looks at Zack and _beams_. Zack's eyes start to water until he looks away.

"G'morning," Cloud mumbles.

"Morning," Zack mumbles back, then with a grin, adds, "Spike."

Cloud groans dramatically, "Aw, I'd almost forgotten about that stupid nickname."

"But it's appropriate! You have spikes!"

"Your hair is worse than mine is, you take the nickname!"

"Nope, no takebacks!" Zack reaches a hand up to ruffle said spikes, prompting a squawk and Cloud grabbing his wrist to push his arm away. Zack pushes back playfully, resulting in a brief bout of arm wrestling, and before he knows it, Cloud is half crouched across his chest, Zack's left arm pinned awkwardly against the same shoulder. They're both breathing a little harder.

Cloud flops face-first onto Zack's chest, then with a sigh, sits to lean against the wall, legs draped over his lap. Zack can't help the goofy grin that creeps across his face. Cloud raises his eyebrows in question, "What?"

"Nothin, just. Happy to see you. It's probably gonna take a while for it to sink in."

Cloud's mouth quirks in understanding. "I know two weeks isn't much against however long you were taking care of me, but I'm sure happy to see you awake, too."

The cheerful mood drops. Zack debates how to answer for a minute, but there's not going to be a better opening, and this is a conversation that needs to be had. "Almost a year." His fingers start smoothing up and down Cloud's shins, ankles, playing with the hem of his soft sleep pants. "We escaped in late December of last year. It's early December now."

Cloud gapes. "You carried my comatose body around for a year? How? _Why?_ It was hard enough for two weeks when you were only sitting in one place!"

"Well, we did have help from a few friends. And you weren't completely unresponsive. You'd put one foot in front of the other if I was guiding you. There were a few places that we could stay for a month or so while I got money for supplies together. As for why, well." Because Zack had put Cloud in that situation to begin with. Because he'd already watched so many friends die, and Zack hadn't been able to do fuck all. "We're friends, right? I wasn't going to just leave you."

His friend's face does something complicated, but he doesn't push it, instead moving to the next point. "You said we escaped. The last thing I clearly remember is fighting Sephiroth. Which was five years ago, apparently. What... Where did we escape from?"

Zack sits up, forcing Cloud to pull in his knees, settles against the wall with his shoulder brushing Cloud's. It's a stall, but he also does not want to be face-to-face when he says this. "From ShinRa. The, um. Labs. Underneath Nibelheim. Hojo was not happy with us for killing Sephiroth, his favorite creation, so we got to take his place." Zack can't stop a shiver - for a second, he can still feel metal straps on his arms, and a burning in his veins.

There's a pause, and he peeks over to see Cloud staring back at him, brow furrowed. "I don't remember any of that. I mean, I get flashes sometimes, of you talking to me, of sitting in a sidecar? While you drive a motorcycle?"

"Yeah, we had that for a while. Had to sell it in Costa del Sol before getting on a ship to the Eastern Continent. And I wouldn't call it a bad thing that you can't remember." Cloud had had it worse, for all that he never regained consciousness in the labs. Zack hadn't known, before, that someone could scream without waking up.

Cloud nods, and lets out a gust of breath, " Okay. Thank you. For saving me, and for telling me what you can. So we're here now, we're both awake and alive and healthy. The plan is to settle here, be mercs together?"

"Pretty much. There is someone I want to get in touch with, let her know that I'm alive, but otherwise we've made it to the end of my plans, you know?"

"Alright. Then today we need to do some shopping. I've been working some, mostly monster jobs from the Neighborhood Watch here, but with your sword and my armor, we've only got one full kit between us." Cloud scoots off the bed and starts stripping off his pajamas. There's a growl from the vicinity of his stomach. "And maybe get some breakfast while we're at it."


	3. Chapter 3

Cloud dresses quickly and buckles on his one-shouldered harness, then shows Zack the salvaged remains of his own gear. His old shirt and pants had been beyond hope, Cloud says, but it hadn't been hard to find similar clothes - dark canvas bottoms and a maroon sleeveless top. It still feels strange to not put on the ribbed turtleneck Zack's worn for so much of his life.

Zack's own harness has been rebuilt, too. Cloud explains that the leather had been just as full of holes as the clothing, but armor is harder to replace, so he'd patched together what he could. The kidney belt now has a thin sheet of metal covering the SOLDIER symbol, painted black to match his pauldrons. One of the suspenders straps is also completely new, a lighter shade of brown from its mate.

"People below the plate can get spooked by a ShinRa uniform, so it's not a bad thing to make it look a little different." Cloud adds, sounding like he's quoting someone.

His materia bracer hadn't made it at all, the gems inside shattered except for a Heal and a Lightning, which were both now on Cloud's arm.

When they're done, Cloud passes the Buster Sword to Zack. The familiar weight of Angeal's legacy settling onto his back also feels a lot like settling back into his own skin. Zack does a quick once-over in the clouded sink mirror. It's clear what his friend had meant. The man looking back at him is a ShinRa SOLDIER, but only if you look twice. A former SOLDIER wearing a former SOLDIER uniform.

The mirror also serves to remind Zack of another bit of business. "Aww, man. That's actually worse than I thought. Know if there're any good barbers in town? I gotta get this fixed."

"I dunno about good, but I have seen a couple. You want to go before or after breakfast?" Cloud leads the way out the door and downstairs.

"I would really like to not wander around on errands looking like someone's played a practical joke on me," Zack says with a pout.

"Wait, are you speaking from experience?" Cloud sounds amused , and glancing over, the tiniest curl pulls at his friend's lips. "Did you actually do that to someone?"

"Slander! You know I would never do something so petty!" 

"I don't know that at all." 

Zack's outraged, "Cloud!" is somewhat ruined when he has to supress a chuckle. He swipes at Cloud's shoulders, only for his target to duck under his arm and turn down another road. Halfway down Zack does indeed see the distinctive red-and-white spiral pole. 

When they're almost to the shop the door opens with a chime, and Tifa steps out, calling, "See you next week!" over her shoulder. She turns forward again and stops, seeing the two men, who have stepped out of her way. "Oh! Cloud, Zack! Good morning!"

"Morning, Tifa," Cloud replies, sounding much more subdued. There's a brief "what are you up to" exchange. Tifa has a side business selling water filters to residents, apparently, and is making her rounds exchanging filters and collecting payments.

"This is the mercenary work I meant to hire you for, actually. Sometimes customers need a little encouragement to settle their bill, and I thought that with you standing behind me, they might be more cooperative." 

Cloud looks conflicted, but Zack waves him off. "I'm about to be stuck here for however long. You go do your thing." He pulls the Buster off of his back and hands it to Cloud. "This'll help with the intimidation factor. How 'bout we meet back at 7th Heaven when we're done?"

"If you're sure."

"Of course! I'll be fine. See you soon!" Cloud passes Zack his wallet with an unhappy frown, then trails after Tifa. "Yeah, that look might even encourage customers to pay more!" Cloud makes a rude gesture over his shoulder, prompting a laugh out of Zack.

It is not fine. Honestly, Zack is half a beat from running after them, from pulling Cloud back up to their room, curling up around him for the rest of the day. He takes a calming breath, counts off reasons to let them go. Tifa is Cloud's friend, maybe the only one left from Nibelheim. Zack already freaked her out enough last night. They need to work to earn money. They need to not piss off the locals, especially if they want to stay here for any amount of time.

When he opens his eyes, he sees the barber shop owner propped against the frame of his open door, staring at Zack. "I take it you want help with that?" the older man says, nodding at Zack's hair.

Zack grins back, "Please."

The visit is both short and overly long. Zack just asks to shave the rest of the left side of his head, so it looks like an intentional style. Shouldn't take too long, right? That's until the guy comes up behind him with a pair of scissors and Zack just about mangles the poor chair trying not to deck him. Hitting a normal human full strength will kill them, Zack. This nice man is just doing what he's been asked to do. 

He's suddenly very, very glad that he sent Cloud away with his sword.

Thankfully, the barber takes note if the reaction and switches to clippers. The buzzing, vibrating device right at his ear is marginally better. Zack still spends the visit white-knuckling the chair, chatting with the guy just to distract himself.

At the end, Zack has heard all about Lyam's teenage daughter's antics in Wall Market and how he and his spouse are at their wits end with what to do. He's has also promised to pass on Cloud and Zack's info to his in-laws, who have complained about a pack of wild dogs a little too close to town. Lyam points Zack in the direction of 7th Heaven, seeing him off with a cheerful, "Welcome to the neighborhood!"


	4. Chapter 4

Zack finds Cloud sitting at the bar in an otherwise empty 7th Heaven. He now has a iron sword attached to his back, the Buster Sword propped against the bar next to him, and a new materia bracer is looped around the Buster's haft, complete with a new set of materia.

"Wow," Zack whistles, settling on a neighboring stool, "who knew water filters paid so well. Should we switch careers?" Which earns a wry huff from his companion, followed by a head shake _no_.

"Tifa passed on my pay from last night. The Weapons Shop doesn't have a huge selection, so I just got the best they have." Cloud takes a drink of something that looks like cough syrup and smells like turpentine. Zack snags it on the way down.

"Aren't you a bit young for day drinking, bud?" Shamelessly hypocritical, Zack tries a sip, too. He's never actually tried liquor before, is it supposed to burn this much? 

"Nope. I have been reminded, I'm now twenty-one. Legal to drink anywhere I wanna go. So I figured, what's the point of all this trauma if I can't try to drown it in alcohol?"

Zack, startled into a laugh just as he's tipping the glass back, dissolves into a fit of coughing and rotgut up his nose. "Augh, that's nasty!" He is peripherally aware of Cloud circling the bar, then coming back with a glass of water. He claps Zack on the back a few times.

"Sorry, Zack. Didn't mean the drowning to be literal," he says when the coughing clears up. Cloud grins sheepishly, Zack rolls his eyes at the bad joke even as he can't keep from smiling back. There's a soft scritch of fingertips in his newly buzzed hair, across to where the long strands are slicked up and out of the way. "This looks better," his friend says

"I know, I know. I probably should've just cut it all off, but. Do you know how long it took to grow out?" Zack makes a sad puppy face. He doesn't think he could have sat under the clippers any longer, though. As it is, his skin still feels like it's vibrating.

They're interrupted by a scraping sound in the corner; there's a pinball machine rising through the floor, Tifa standing on the platform next to it. As soon as the lift stops, she's through the counter door and pouring herself a water, then another. She's completely silent, focused on her task, clearly upset. When her glass empties a second time, she refills it from one of the unlabeled liquor bottles, then circles back around and sits on the stool one away from Cloud.

"You look like you're having second thoughts." says Cloud, after a beat.

Tifa gives a tiny sigh, fiddling with her glass. "I know that our methods before now...we weren't changing anything," she says. "I know that. We needed to do something more. But not like this. I don't know. I just feel so _trapped_." The way she says it, looking at Cloud, she obviously hinting at something more, but Cloud doesn't catch on.

"If it feels wrong, don't do it," he says. From Tifa's huff, there was definitely a missed queue.

Zack clears his throat awkwardly, startling Tifa. She hadn't even noticed him. "I know I'm missing some context here, but speaking as someone who has carried out plans with...varying amounts of forethought. Following my gut has historically given me fewer regrets than following orders." Tifa nods, looking thoughtful.

There's another grinding sound and the pinball machine elevator returns, this time depositing a woman with a ponytail, red bandana, and the most uncomfortable-looking breastplate Zack's ever seen. She heads for a table by the dartboard, and is soon joined by two men in more homemade armor, also sporting eed bandanas. The next load from the pinball machine is a single person, but quite possibly the largest natural human Zack has ever seen. Angeal had been giant of a man, almost two meters tall and over a hundred kilos. This guy is even bigger and broader, a mountain of muscle with an _honest-to-holy-shit_ machine gun arm! Zack watches the man join the other three, trying very hard not to gape openly. He's also getting a sinking feeling about what Cloud may have been working on last night.

It occurs to Zack's that Tifa came from the same room several minutes ago, and none of the others have spoken to her yet. "Wait, did you already quit?"

"We agreed to disagree," she says with a humorless smile. Getting up, Tifa bounces a bit, trying to shake off the gloom, and turns to the two men, "whaddya say to some eggs to soften that liquid breakfast?"

Before she can even get through the bar gate, the wall of muscle pops up behind her. "Tifa, it's time to celebrate! Bring out the good stuff!" Tifa shrugs helplessly to Cloud and Zack, then goes off to get drinks for the table. Looks like breakfast got cancelled. The big man turns to Cloud next, tossing a small pike of gil onto the bar, "Here's a little extra for, uh, outstanding service. We won't be needing you on the next job."

Ok, correction. This guy's also the biggest asshole Zack's ever seen.

Zack is pushing back his stool when Cloud holds up a hand to stop him. "Fine with me. No contract, no obligations. I will say this, though, speaking as one professional to a... _self-taught_. If you're thinking of going again so soon, after last night, with the whole city on high alert? You're only going to get yourselves killed."

The guy snarls at Cloud, "If I wanted your opinion, I'd a paid you for it. Now get out. This is a private event." Asshole turns back to the table. Well Zack doesn't need to be told twice. He's strapping on the new bracer and telling himself that Tifa will not appreciate a fight in her bar. 

On their way out the door, the metal bra lady stops them. "Sorry, Cloud, I did try to get you hired again, but Barret..." she gestures at the big jerk. Wait, Barret? Little Marlene's dad, Barret, is the one with the permanent scowl and gun arm? 

"Don't worry about it Jessie," Cloud assures her. "Just be careful, ShinRa is going to be on high alert the next few days."

Jessie looks like she got an early birthday present. "Aww, you do care! So much for the heartless merc, right?" She bumps his shoulder playfully. Her gaze rakes Cloud head to foot, then catches on Zack and does the same. "I might still have an offer for you. Separately. Can I catch up with you guys later?" Cloud nods, and Jessie scampers back to the table, making apologies to her friends who had been shouting obnoxiously at her.

Outside, Zack tries to let the tension out. It's still early in the day, plenty of time to get some actual food, maybe see if Cloud wants to explain what in the world he's gotten himself involved in. There's a couple of food trucks just down the street. Of course, they're halfway down the road when the group in 7th Heaven decide to kick off their celebration with a cheer.

"To AVALANCHE!"


End file.
